D-subminiature (professional audio)

D-subminiature connectors are used to carry balanced analog or digital audio on many multichannel professional audio equipment, where the use of XLR connectors is impractical, for example due to space constraints. The most common usage is the DB25, using TASCAM's pinout. To avoid the possibility of bent pins on fixed equipment, the male connector is generally fitted to the cabling and the female connector to the equipment. The DD50 connector is described in AES-2id-1996.

DA15
Pin	Quartz Digital[1]	Bluefish Digital[2]
1	Out 1/2 +	In 5/6 +
2	GND	In 3/4 -
3	Out 3/4 +	In 3/4 +
4	GND	In 1/2 -
5	GND	In 1/2 +
6	Out 5/6 +	In 5/6 -
7	GND	Out 5/6 -
8	Out 7/8 +	In 1/2 GND
9	Out 1/2 -	Out 1/2 GND
10	GND	n/c
11	Out 3/4 -	Out 5/6 +
12	GND	Out 3/4 -
13	Out 5/6 -	Out 3/4 +
14	GND	Out 1/2 -
15	Out 7/8 -	Out 1/2 +

DB25
Pin	Yamaha Digital[3]	TASCAM / Digidesign Digital[4]	TASCAM Analog[4]
1	In 1/2 +	Out 7/8 +	In/Out 8 +
2	In 3/4 +	Out 7/8 GND	In/Out 8 GND
3	In 5/6 +	Out 5/6 -	In/Out 7 -
4	In 7/8 +	Out 3/4 +	In/Out 6 +
5	Out 1/2 +	Out 3/4 GND	In/Out 6 GND
6	Out 3/4 +	Out 1/2 -	In/Out 5 -
7	Out 5/6 +	In 7/8 +	In/Out 4 +
8	Out 7/8 +	In 7/8 GND	In/Out 4 GND
9	n/c	In 5/6 -	In/Out 3 -
10	GND	In 3/4 +	In/Out 2 +
11	n/c	In 3/4 GND	In/Out 2 GND
12	GND	In 1/2 -	In/Out 1 -
13	GND	n/c	n/c
14	In 1/2 -	Out 7/8 -	In/Out 8 -
15	In 3/4 -	Out 5/6 +	In/Out 7 +
16	In 5/6 -	Out 5/6 GND	In/Out 7 GND
17	In 7/8 -	Out 3/4 -	In/Out 6 -
18	Out 1/2 -	Out 1/2 +	In/Out 5 +
19	Out 3/4 -	Out 1/2 GND	In/Out 5 GND
20	Out 5/6 -	In 7/8 -	In/Out 4 -
21	Out 7/8 -	In 5/6 +	In/Out 3 +
22	GND	In 5/6 GND	In/Out 3 GND
23	GND	In 3/4 -	In/Out 2 -
24	GND	In 1/2 +	In/Out 1 +
25	GND	In 1/2 GND	In/Out 1 GND

Lynx AES16(e) Digital I/O Pinout using HD26[5]
Pin	Signal	Pin	Signal	Pin	Signal
1	Clock Gnd	10	Clock
2	Out Ch 8 -	11	Out Ch 8 +	19	Out Ch 8 GND
3	Out Ch 7 GND	12	Out Ch 7 -	20	Out Ch 7 +
4	Out Ch 6 -	13	Out Ch 6 +	21	Out Ch 6 GND
5	Out Ch 5 GND	14	Out Ch 5 -	22	Out Ch 5 +
6	In Ch 4 -	15	In Ch 4 +	23	In Ch 4 GND
7	In Ch 3 GND	16	In Ch 3 -	24	In Ch 3 +
8	In Ch 2 -	17	In Ch 2 +	25	In Ch 2 GND
9	In Ch 1 GND	18	In Ch 1 -	26	In Ch 1 +

DD50
Pin	Quartz[1] / AES-2id Digital
1	Ch 1 GND
2	Ch 2 +
3	Ch 3 GND
4	Ch 4 +
5	Ch 5 GND
6	Ch 6 +
7	Ch 7 GND
8	Ch 8 +
9	Ch 9 GND
10	Ch 10 +
11	Ch 11 GND
12	Ch 12 +
13	Ch 13 GND
14	Ch 14 +
15	Ch 15 GND
16	Ch 16 +
17	GND
18	Ch 1 -
19	Ch 2 -
20	Ch 3 -
21	Ch 4 -
22	Ch 5 -
23	Ch 6 -
24	Ch 7 -
25	Ch 8 -
26	Ch 9 -
27	Ch 10 -
28	Ch 11 -
29	Ch 12 -
30	Ch 13 -
31	Ch 14 -
32	Ch 15 -
33	Ch 16 -
34	Ch 1 +
35	Ch 2 GND
36	Ch 3 +
37	Ch 4 GND
38	Ch 5 +
39	Ch 6 GND
40	Ch 7 +
41	Ch 8 GND
42	Ch 9 +
43	Ch 10 GND
44	Ch 11 +
45	Ch 12 GND
46	Ch 13 +
47	Ch 14 GND
48	Ch 15 +
49	Ch 16 GND
50	GND

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} Quartz Q1602 small router system
2. ^ Bluefish AES breakout cable
3. ^ Aviom DB25 pinout information
4. ^ ^{a b} AES/EBU & Analog DB25 Pinouts
5. ^ Lynx Studio Technology, Inc. AES16 pinout